Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Pakistan's Malala Yousufzai at a ceremony here on Wednesday, explained to the world that no matter how evil the restraints of slavery are, they cannot beat someone's hunt for freedom.
"I am here to share the dreams and voices of our children. I represent the sound of silence and the cry of innocence. There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of children. The single aim of my life is that every child is: free to be a child, free to grow and develop, free to eat, sleep, see daylight, free to laugh and cry, free to play, free to learn, free to go to school, and above all, free to dream. Shackles of slavery not stronger than the quest for freedom," said Satyarthi while addressing the gathering here.
Satyarthi further said that he aims to free humankind from all man-made crises.
"I am deeply honoured to recite a mantra from the ancient texts. This mantra carries a prayer, an aspiration and a resolve that has the potential to liberate humanity from all man-made crises. I bow to my parents, my motherland and to mother earth," he added.
He also said that whenever he sees smile on the face of a free child, he sees Gods smiling.
"With a warm heart I recall how thousands of times, I have been liberated, each time I have freed a child from slavery. In the first smile of freedom on their beautiful faces, I see the Gods smiling," he said.
Praising the people associated with his movement to save children, Satyarthi said: "I give the biggest credit of this honour to my movement's Kaalu Kumar, Dhoom Das and Adarsh Kishore from India and Iqbal Masih from Pakistan who made the supreme sacrifice for protecting the freedom and dignity of children. I humbly accept this award on behalf of all such martyrs, my fellow activists across the world and my countrymen."
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He appreciated the progress made in the last couple of years in terms of protecting the children from slavery.
"Undoubtedly, progress has been made in the last couple of decades. The number of out of school children has been halved. Child mortality and malnutrition has been reduced, and millions of child deaths have been prevented," Satyarthi said.
"My daughter Malala and daughters from all over the World are rising up and choosing courage over fear, peace over violence," he added.
He, however, expressed concern over the lack of compassion in the world.
"There is one serious disconnect in this world. It is the lack of compassion. Let us inculcate and transform the individuals' compassion into a global movement. Let us globalise compassion," he said.
Satyarthi also put forward the need for the government to bring up more child-friendly policies.
"Governments must make child-friendly policies. Businesses must be more innovative. Inter-governmental agencies must work together to exercise action. We must stand with our children. We must be bold and ambitious," he said.